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Our next book is Scorched by Mari Mancusi.

Save the Dragon. Destroy the World.

Trinity Foxx is used to her grandfather's crazy stories, so she doesn't believe the latest treasure he brought home to their failing West Texas museum is a real dragon's egg. Not until Connor Jacks, a dragon hunter from the future, tells Trinity that the world is about to be wiped out by a fiery dragon war—unless they find a way to stop it.

Save the Dragon. Save the World

But Connor's not the only one after the egg. His twin brother Caleb believes dragons have the power to save mankind and must be protected. Caleb has seen too many dragons destroyed in the war-scorched future—he'll do whatever it takes to save this one.

With a host of enemies hot on her heels, Trinity must decide who to believe. Connor the brave solider? Caleb the cocky rebel? Or the baby dragon that's starting to whisper to her...saying they are destined? The fate of the world may depend on her choice.

We will meet on March 28th at 2:20 pm in the main campus Media Center. Come join us and get a cookie!

User Review

Setting

The setting is on a cruise boat. Which laurel is very seasick because of that. The boat only stops at a couple of places and the trip is all planned exactly. There is a ton of rich people on the boat and even more crew members. It is very nice until it goes wrong.

Characters

The main characters are Laurel and Tom. Laybourne does a very good job of describing these characters. She makes it so you could almost see the characters. At first Laurel really liked tom but was way to shy and embarrassed. Tom and Laurel always bumped into each other even when they tried to stay away. Every time they did Laybourne described the way the other character saw them and how they felt.

Good Points

What I liked about this book was how laybourne went back and forth between the two characters perspectives. This way i didn't just see one side of feelings or anything i got to know what was going on in both of their heads. I also again liked her way of describing the characters. She was specific and very detailed.

Bad Points

What i didn't like about this book was the ending. It's a cliff hanger and that is good for series but i don't think this will have a second book. Laybourne however does have another series and so it is possible. I am just a little impatient and it sucks to wait.

Plot Summary

In the book Sweet by Emmy Laybourne, The main Two characters are Laurel And Tom. Laurel is on a cruise with her best friend Viv. Viv’s father is paying for them to go on the cruise. The cruise is for the releasing of a new product called “Solo” this product’s purpose is to make the consumer lose weight. Tom is also on this crusie the difference between these characters is Tom is a big star from birth. On the cruise something goes terribly wrong, the passengers start to turn on eachother. Tom and Laurel however become closer.

Ending

What I liked about this book was how laybourne went back and forth between the two characters perspectives. This way i didn't just see one side of feelings or anything i got to know what was going on in both of their heads. I also again liked her way of describing the characters. She was specific and very detailed.

Do you recommend this book?

Yes

Language

G

Sexual Content

PG

Violence

PG

Drug and Alcohol Use

PG

January 09, 2018

Omar Tules

Overall rating

3.7

Story held my interest

4.0

Writing style

3.5

Characters

3.5

User Review

Setting

The setting of the book spends most of the time on the ship. The Ship is a bad place for this to happen. At the same time it is good because it will not affect the rest of the world. That being said there is a low chance of survival being on ship. It is like being stranded on sea. There is no cellphone service and no one can hear you scream. All of these challenges add up but will Laurel be able to handle the pressure?

Characters

Laurel Willard an awkward, freckled, and guitarist. This is the main character and i'm surprised that she survived through the novel. The three words to describe he did not make her seem like a brave women to be fighting against the people on the ship. The author's choice to pick a female as the main character was a good choice. Having to see the struggles, sacrifices, and things she did to survive was entertaining. Also picking a young adult it is easy to relate to the characters in this way. Tom Fiorelli the remoter on this event or nightmare is a very important character. Without Tom all of this would not have happened, i'm sure that this was not the plan. Although it was not his fault, reading this made me feel anger towards him.Tom and Laurel start to have a relationship that could potentially save them for this nightmare

Good Points

The author of the book, Emmy Laybourne write the book really well. One thing that i liked is that she wrote in Laurel’s point of view. I really like this because I could really get a sense of what was Laurel was going through at such hard times. She also wrote the book like how a teenager or a young adult would talk when it came to Laurel. Then when celebrities for important people would talk it sounded sophisticated. Again all of this is easier to relate to the main character. The theme of the book was the most unique part for me because she turned a good thing into a horrible thing. The book will surprise you. The writing style is not anything fancy it is normal which is fine for me.

Bad Points

Reading the book I thought that it was really predictable. There were times i was right and wrong. I'm glad that I was wrong in the ending because I got to enjoy it. Since there are books and movies similar to this the book struggled once and awhile getting my attention. Other than that it was an easy book to read.

Plot Summary

Emmy Laybourne Sweet sounds like what it should be. Laurel Willard and her friend go on a luxurious cruise filled with celebrities. Tom Fiorelli a old child celebrety wants to shed of of this old image. The occasion is to promote a new diet sweetener, Solu. Solu takes away up to five percent of your body fat. Laurel’s experience on the ship is anything but sweet. She is so seasick that she does not get the opportunity to try Solu. Everyone on the ship is loving this new sweetener, but will it be enough to last for everyone? Now things start to get dangerous because everyone in the ship is hooked and wants more. Laurel is now starting to regret going on the ship and has to fight for he life. Both of the characters thought that this was going to be a dream vacation. The vacation turns into a nightmare and has to fight for their lives.

Ending

Reading the book the ending was good and it fit the story. It was not satisfying but I was expecting it to end this way. That's the good thing i'm sure the ending will please most of its audiences. The author’s message to me was very clear people will do whatever they can to be skinny. Not just that but people need to be more comfortable in their own body's .

Do you recommend this book?

Yes

Language

G

Sexual Content

PG

Violence

PG-13

Drug and Alcohol Use

G

January 09, 2018

Emma Peterson

Overall rating

1.3

Story held my interest

1.5

Writing style

1.0

Characters

1.5

The Not-So-Sweet Truth about Sweet

User Review

Setting

The book is set in modern times, or the very near future, aboard The Extravagance, a luxury cruise ship that appears to be even more magnificent that the Titanic. The brilliance of the ship provides a striking contrast to the grotesque events that take place in the book, which is interesting to observe as a reader. In addition, a cruise ship is an unusual setting for a horror novel, which provides uniqueness to the story. The fact that the book is set in the present also develops a sense of tension in the reader, because it suggests the possibility that the events that take place in the story are not far off from events that could happen in real life.

Characters

I felt like the characters in Sweet were not believable at all. For example, Laurel, one of the book’s two main protagonists, is just generally irritating to listen to. The chapters that are written in her point of view started off as snarky and quirky at the beginning of the book, which is acceptable at the beginning of the book because the tone is a lot less intense. Her immaturity comes off as endearing, and as a reader, I overlooked it. However, later in the novel, once the action picks up and the scary events begin to take place, she still remains just as immature and annoying. It’s frustrating to listen to her state obvious facts and sigh about how attractive Tom is when she really should be more worried about the literal murders going on around her! I did find it refreshing that she, as a character, was legitimately comfortable in her own shoes and confident with her body type, but I think she doesn’t develop throughout the story at all. She starts out as an immature, teenage girl who swoons over hot celebrity personalities, and this is basically the same way she ends the novel. She doesn’t learn anything about herself, she just falls into a couple lucky situations and somehow lands a famous boyfriend in six days. There was almost no change in her, and this layered on top of her unrealistic reaction to the events around her makes for a character that I didn’t want to pay any attention to at all. The other protagonist, handsome television star Tom Fiorelli, really wasn’t much better. I found him boring and cynical of everyone around him, which made the chapters written in his point of view unpleasant to read. His so-called “love” for Laurel is extremely unbelievable. The two have only known each other for six days. Six! That is nowhere near enough time for these two polar opposites to fall in love. It makes sense that they would be allies in this situation, since neither of them had any Solu, and I may even be able to see them becoming friends because of the sheer amount of horrifying experiences they go through together, but the whole relationship felt out of place. Why are they worrying about kissing each other in Laurel’s closet while there are multiple mass murders going on just outside? The romantic aspect of their relationship was too hurried, too unbelievable, too fast, and ultimately unnecessary to the plot of the novel.

Good Points

This book was tolerable, at best. I wouldn't call it good.

Bad Points

The writing style of this book were overall immature. It was incredibly frustrating to read. The author overused parentheses, using them to cut off thought processes, include unnecessary information, or just separate information that really should have been put together. The terminology used by both characters felt childish and disjointed, which made it hard to get to the story’s actual plot. For example, Laurel uses the phrase “My God” about 900 times throughout the course of the novel. I wish I was joking. Not only does she say this out loud in her dialogue, but she also ccrams it into every piece of her narration! It’s childish and an inaccurate representation of how a teenager would act in this situation. The switching viewpoints between Laurel and Tom didn’t help either, because I felt like it was unnecessary. It separated the plot between two characters I didn’t really want to hear from, which made me lose interest in the book. In addition, the book takes on a sort of satirical attitude towards its own story, creating a paradox where the scenes being portrayed are horrific and serious, but the attitude of the narrar was flippant or just over exaggerated. The book made fun of itself, and not in an intentional way, and this really help back the potential of the book. All the errors with the writing style made his really made the book hard to read, and the concept of what might have been a very interesting story was lost.
As I’ve made very clear, this book had several weaknesses. The immaturity of the writing style, the unrealistic characters, the underdeveloped characters, the overly casual phraseology, and the forced romantic relationship between Tom and Laurel all dragged the seemingly interesting concept of the book down and made it hard to read. This was disappointing for me, because I was actually very excited to read this book. I loved the idea, and I wanted so badly to like it. But overall, it just didn’t work. Honestly, it seems like it was written by a semi-talented thirteen year old, who had a really good idea for a story, but couldn’t quite carry it out. The concept had potential, but it was drowned in the childish writing and hastily thrown together characters with no real depth or opportunity for change. It seems like a waste to let a story with so much potential get completely destroyed by the author.

Plot Summary

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne is a horror novel that tells the story of a diet sensation gone wrong. Aboard the Solu Cruise to Lose, the nation’s largest soda corporation, Pipop, launches its new diet sweetener Solu, which promises to get rid of spare weight without ever having to diet. Passengers are promised to lose over 5 percent of their body weight in just six short days, which sounds like a dream come true to the overweight upper class of America. Enter our first protagonist Laurel, who was dragged aboard the cruise by her binge-eating, weight-obsessed, and conveniently rich best friend Vivika. Although Laurel has always been very happy with her size fourteen body, Vivika would do anything to get thin, and the two end up on the cruise together. Our other protagonist Tom Fiorelli is a rising television personality that is looking to use this cruise as a way to shake of his embarrassing memories as a childhood tv star and secure a more serious career. When the new diet sensation is finally revealed on the first day of the cruise, both Tom and Laurel refuse to eat it. Over the next few days aboard the cruise, the passengers are delighted as the sweetener works wonders on their weight, transforming them overnight from obese to model-worthy. However Tom and Laurel are skeptical because it appears the Solu may be working too well. The weight transformations go from drastic to devastating, and the pair soon realize that Solu is not just a trendy sweetener, but a highly addictive drug with eerily grotesque side effects. As Tom and Laurel are hunted down by the bloodthirsty passengers, they struggle to find the truth behind Solu’s nature and the way to save themselves and those they love from the deathly circumstances aboard the ship. Two significant events include the introduction of the Solu at the beginning of the book, where the sweetener appears to be innocent and even magical, and the mob near the end of the book that tramples a man and hangs the creator of Solu in a desperate attempt to obtain more of the diet wonder-drug.

Ending

The ending of the novel, sadly and unsurprisingly, didn’t save the book from its downward spiral. It felt rushed and hurried, like the author was trying to force feed a half-baked conclusion down the throats of her characters and her readers because she had to run out and get groceries later that night. Laurel and Tom are both severely injured by their own stupid decisions, and the way they ended up escaping the ship was ridiculous. They ended up creating more problems than they solved. The cliffhanger ending in the last chapter was especially unsatisfying, because it was just completely unnecessary. What was supposed to be a chilling end to the novel was, in reality, a cheap grab at a cliche cliffhanger that didn’t feel like it matched up with the rest of the book, except that it was equally ill-written. I believe the author was trying to send a message to her audience about the importance of a positive self-image and the seriousness of weight as a worldwide issue, but honestly obesity is not a worldwide problem. It’s not something that we need to write horror novels about, because it is so rare and insignificant when compared to other, more pertinent world issues like, say, world hunger. Sweet, in the end, just came off as a badly written, unbelievable, and irritating book to read.

Do you recommend this book?

No

Language

G

Sexual Content

PG

Violence

R

Drug and Alcohol Use

R

January 09, 2018

Talia Miller

Overall rating

0.5

Story held my interest

0.5

Writing style

0.5

Characters

0.5

User Review

Setting

The story takes place on a cruise ship. Being on the ship makes it hard to leave and escape which becomes difficult when everyone but Tom and Laurel become addicted to Solu and are killing to get more. The book was written in modern day and attempted to show the “trend” of being thin.

Characters

Laurel and Tom are both main characters in the book Sweet. The chapters alternate between the two characters so the reader can see two different perspective on things. Laurel is a character who is perfectly fine with her weight and does not think she needs to be any thinner. She does not think her friend Viv should worry about her weight either. Laurel is 17 and the youngest on the ship and by far the biggest misfit. Laurel has a romantic relationship with Tom, a character who “loved her just the way she was’’ It was such a typical, overdone relationship that all authors use in teenage novels. Tom was the celebrity who loved an average girl and did not want her to change.

Good Points

The only good thing about this book was the author at least switched the chapters between Laurel and Tom for alternating perspectives.

Bad Points

The book was absolutely terrible. It was boring and was it was painful to get through. The book took forever to get to the action and when it did, it was rushed. There was no build up or suspense. The book made it seem like weight was the biggest problem in the world which is wrong.

Plot Summary

In the book Sweet by Emmy Laybourne two best friends, Laurel and Vivika go on a cruise where a new sweetener, Solu, that helps with weight loss is being given out. The cruise is filled with many celebrities, many of who do not need to lose weight. Tom, an anchor for the cruise, happens to interview Laurel and Vivika. Laurel is seasick and throws up on Tom. Because she is seasick she does not eat anything with the sweetener but very self conscious Viv does. Tom also does not eat anything with the sweetner because his trainer Derek does not think he should risk all the progress made. With Solu being so addictive anyone who had it became willing to kill and it was up to Tom and Laurel to make it out alive and stop everyone not on the cruise from buying such an addictive substance.

Ending

I was not satisfied. The ending left potential madness and Laybourne has no plan on writing another book. (which is fine I would not waste my time reading if there was) The ending was stupid but so was the rest of the book. Laybourne was trying to get everyone to love and be comfortable with their weight which would be more effective if she wrote a decent book. All i got out of this novel was how to not write a book.

Do you recommend this book?

No

Language

PG

Sexual Content

PG

Violence

R

Drug and Alcohol Use

G

January 09, 2018

Conner Carlile

Overall rating

0.7

Story held my interest

0.5

Writing style

0.5

Characters

1.0

Sweet

User Review

Setting

The story only takes place on the ship and only at the end does Laybourne describe the world off of the ship. Because the characters are confined to the ship in the middle of the ocean, you feel the tension when things start to go wrong and they cant leave. People are literally killing each other and there is no way for the characters to escape. Because the reader knows they can not leave it creates this tension for the characters that the reader can relate to.

Characters

Viv I feel had the best effectiveness because Laybourne uses her to discuss some serious social issues like obesity and body shaming. Laybourn, in a kind of satoricall way, tries to show her readers the problems society has of the need for the picture perfect body and anything other than perfect is in inadequate. The character I feel had the least effectiveness was Tom, because the only point to his character was to create the romantic aspect to the novel which was short lived and he only showed interest in laurel for the reclaim of his fame.

Good Points

None...

Bad Points

Laybourne wrote this book with the mixed tone of an unintentional satire mixed with a coming of age story. I feel that Laybourne added so many unneeded exaggerations to her story that the underlying message of eating disorders gets undermined by the satirical elements of the story. I also feel that the switching viewpoints throughout the book was confusing and unnecessary.

Plot Summary

Emmy Laybourne’s novel Sweet starts with a 17 year old girl Laurel and her friends Viv and Tom who go on a cruise where a new diet sweetener, Solu, will be launched. Laurel is fine with the way she looks so she does not try it, she is just there to support Viv who is ashamed of her weight. When the sweetener has obvious side effects Laurel and her friends are stuck on the boat and has no other option but try to stay alive.

Ending

I feel like Laybourne was trying to bring to realization that obesity and eating disorders are a problem in todays society and they need to be addressed.